Russia Against Napoleon (93 page)

44 N. Shil’der,
Imperator Aleksandr pervyi: Ego zhizn’ i tsarstvovanie
, 4 vols., SPB, 1897, vol. 3, pp. 98–102. This will be covered in more detail in Ch. 7. The instructions to Lobanov to form twelve new regiments on the basis of voluntary contributions were enclosed in a letter from Barclay of 10 May 1812 (OS): RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 1/188a, Delo 15, fos. 2–10. Estimates of costs are contained in a letter from the governor of Voronezh to Balashev on 24 June 1812 (OS): RGVIA, Fond 125, Opis 1/188a, Delo 16, fos. 92–3.

45
MVUA
1812, 1/2, no. 1, pp. 1–6.

46 For Wolzogen’s view, see his memorandum of 13 Oct. 1811 (OS) in
MVUA
1812, 5, no. 139, Wolzogen to Barclay, pp. 273–9. For the minister’s own view that an offensive strategy was the better option, see e.g. a memorandum by him of Jan. 1811:
MVUA
1812, 7, no. 16 (additional), pp. 187–9.

47
MVUA
1812, 2, no. 56, Plan of Military Operations, Feb. 1811, pp. 83–93.

48 Alexander of Württemberg’s useful memorandum is in
MVUA
1812, 10, no. 143, pp. 253–75; for Bagration, see e.g.
MVUA
1812, 12, no. 103, Bagration to Barclay, 12 June 1812 (OS), pp. 107–9; for Volkonsky,
MVUA
1812, 11, no. 260, 29 April 1812 (OS), pp. 324–33.

49 There are very many documents on the difficulties of feeding the troops but see e.g. a report from Barclay to Alexander of 4 April 1812 (OS) in which he states that food and particularly fodder is a great problem, the roads are impassable, he cannot requisition since a state of war has not yet been proclaimed but has no money to buy food, and is keeping sickness rates down so long as the units are well dispersed;
MVUA
1812, 11, no. 41, 4 April 1812 (OS), pp. 54–5.

50 Again, there are very many memorandums on this theme in
MVUA
but the best summary of the problem is in I. G. Fabritsius,
Glavnoe inzhenernoe upravlenie
, SVM, 7, SPB, 1902.

51 For Wolzogen’s views, see his memorandum above (n. 6). Bogdanovich,
Istoriia
…1812
goda
, vol. 1, pp. 407–11, describes the terrain well. Oppermann’s report to Barclay is dated 10 Aug 1811 (OS):
MVUA
1812, 4, no. 56, pp. 207–9.

52 The two key works on the Pfühl plan in particular and Russian planning in general are V. M. Bezotosnyi,
Razvedka i plany storon v
1812
godu
, Moscow, 2005, pp. 85–108, and V. V. Pugachev, ‘K voprosu o pervonachal’nom plane voiny 1812 goda’, in
K stopiatidesiatiletiiu otechestvennoi voiny
, Moscow, 1962, pp. 31–46. I owe a great deal to both works.

53 ‘Analiticheskii proekt voennykh deistvii v 1812 P. A. Chuikevicha’, in
Rossiiskii arkhiv
, 7, 1996, pp. 41–57.

54 Josselson,
Commander
, pp. 41–2;
Correspondance de l’Empereur Alexandre
, no. 73, Alexander to Catherine, 18 Sept. 1812 (OS), pp. 86–93; Comte de Rochechouart,
Souvenirs de la Révolution, l’Empire et la Restauration
, Paris, 1889, pp. 167–8. Rostopchin’s letter is quoted in A. G. Tartakovskii,
Nerazgadannyi Barklai
, Moscow, 1996, p. 73.

55 F. von Schubert,
Unter dem Doppeladler
, Stuttgart, 1962, pp. 212–13: ‘Russia would have been irretrievably lost’.
Metternich: The Autobiography
1773–1815, London, 2004, p. 153.
MVUA
1812, 7,
prilozheniia
, no. 21, ‘Plan voennykh deistvii’, Johann Barclay de Tolly, 1811, pp. 217–42, at p. 218.

56 It is impossible to cite all this correspondence: see e.g. a typical letter from Lieutenant-General Baggohufvudt to Barclay, dated 9 Feb. 1812 (OS):
MVUA
1812, 9, no. 50, p. 128.

57 Most of these retreats are too famous to require references, but see C. Esdaile,
The Peninsular War
, London, 2002, p. 412, for the impact on British discipline of the retreat from Burgos (‘many units went to pieces’). The quote comes from Gordon Corrigan,
Wellington: A Military Life
, London, 2001, p. 227. For Bagration, see his letter to Alexander of 6 June 1812 (OS):
MVUA
1812, 13, no. 57, pp. 48–50.

58 See e.g. the comments by the historian of the Iamburg Lancer Regiment: Lieutenant Krestovskii,
Istoriia…Iamburgskago…polka
, pp. 102–3. The English-speaking reader will get some sense of Suvorov’s ‘doctrine’ from P. Longworth,
The Art of Victory
, London, 1965. Christopher Duffy,
Russia’s Military Way to the West
, London, 1981, is a very good introduction to the eighteenth-century Russian army’s history, including the evolution of its ‘doctrine’.

59
MVUA
1812, 1/2, no. 60, Diebitsch to Barclay, 9 May 1810 (OS), pp. 87–91; the anonymous report is not dated but clearly originates from the winter of 1811–12: see
MVUA
1812, 7, no. 13, pp. 175–83.

60 C. F. Adams (ed.),
John Quincy Adams in Russia
, New York, 1970, p. 426. Longinov’s letter to S. R. Vorontsov is dated 28 July 1812 (OS):
RA
, 4, 1912, pp. 481–547, at p. 490.

61
MVUA
1812, 16, no. 2, Alexander to Barclay, 7 April 1812 (OS), pp. 180–81, on the significance of the alliance and the impossibility now of a pre-emptive strike; 13, no. 190, Arenschildt to Münster, 22 May (3 June) 1812, pp. 189–94.

62
MVUA
1812, 12, no. 260, Memorandum by Volkonsky, 29 April 1812 (OS), pp. 324–33.

63
MVUA
1812, 13, no. 65, Barclay to Bagration, 6 June 1812 (OS), p. 56.

64
MVUA
1812, 13, no. 94, pp. 96–7, and no. 103, pp. 107–9: Bagration to Barclay.

65
MVUA
1812, 13, no. 57, Bagration to Alexander, 6 June 1812 (OS), pp. 48–50.

Chapter 5: The Retreat

1 Statistics from S. V. Shvedov, ‘Komplektovanie, chislennost’ i poteri russkoi armii v 1812 godu’, in
K 175-letiiu Otechestvennoi voiny
1812
g.
, Moscow, 1987, p. 125.

2 See Appendix 1. The table is drawn from
MVUA
1812, 17, pp. 51–4.

3 See e.g. Paulucci’s letter to Alexander of 14 July 1812 (OS) in
MVUA
1812, 14, no. 130, pp. 128–9.

4 For biographical information on Toll, see D. N. Shilov,
Gosudarstvennye deiateli Rossiiskoi imperii
, SPB, 2001, pp. 671–4. The comments are drawn from N. Murav’ev, ‘Zapiski Nikolaia Nikolaevicha Muraveva’,
RA
, 3, 1885, pp. 5–84, at p. 81.

5 P. Grabbe,
Iz pamiatnykh zapisok: Otechestvennaia voina
, Moscow, 1873, pp. 17–19, 60, 74–7.

6 Murav’ev, ‘Zapiski’, p. 53. P. Pototskii,
Istoriia gvardeiskoi artillerii
, SPB, 1896, pp. 155–6.

7 Ludwig von Wolzogen,
Mémoires d’un Général d’Infanterie au service de la Prusse et de la Russie (1792–1836)
, Paris, 2002, pp. 106, 115. V. von Löwenstern,
Mémoires du Général-Major Russe Baron de Löwenstern
, 2 vols., Paris, 1903, vol. 1, pp. 217, 247–8.

8
SIM
, 5, nos. 1 and 2, Ermolov to Alexander, 1 and 10 Aug. 1812, pp. 411–17. V. Kharkevich (ed.), 1812
god v dnevnikakh, zapiskakh i vospominaniiakh sovremennikov
, 4 vols., Vilna, 1900–1907, vol. 1, p. 183 (‘Iz zapisok Vistitskago’).

9 S. N. Golubeva (ed.),
General Bagration: Sbornik dokumentov i materialov
, Moscow, 1945, no. 102, Ermolov to Bagration, 30 June 1812 (12 July NS), pp. 189–90. There is a vast literature on the Decembrists, much of which discusses Ermolov: see e.g. M. A. Davydov,
Oppozitsiia ego velichestva
, Moscow, 1994. For Alexander’s comment: ‘Zapiski Iakova Ivanovicha de Sanglena: 1776–1831 gg.’,
RS
, 37, 1883, pp. 1–46, 539–56, at p. 551.

10 See, above all, R. I. Sementkovskii,
E. F. Kankrin: Ego zhizn’ i gosudarstvennaia deiatel’nost’
, SPB, 1893.

11
Correspondance de l’Empereur Alexandre
, no. 73, Alexander to Catherine, 18 Sept. 1812 (OS), pp. 86–93. For Alexander’s key statement on the need to beware public opinion, see
VS
, 47/1, 1904, no. 19, Alexander to Barclay, 24 November 1812 (OS), pp. 231–3.

12 On Wittgenstein, see
MVUA
1812, 13, no. 173, Barclay to Alexander, 18 June 1812 (OS), pp. 183–4; Baggohufvudt’s letter is quoted in I. I. Shelengovskii,
Istoriia 69-goRiazanskago polka
, 3 vols., Lublin, 1911, vol. 2, p. 143.

13
Mémoires du Général Bennigsen
, 3 vols., Paris, n.d., vol. 3, p. 77; see
Mémoires de Langeron, Général d’Infanterie dans l’Armée Russe: Campagnes de 1812, 1813, 1814
, Paris, 1902, e.g. p. 35, for the view that Bennigsen was Russia’s best tactician.

14 On Barclay’s frustrating efforts to create a mobile magazine, see e.g. V. P. Totfalushin,
M. V. Barklai de Tolli v otechestvennoi voine
1812
goda
, Saratov, 1991, pp. 29–31.

15 See Pushchin’s diary: V. G. Bortnevskii (ed.),
Dnevnik Pavla Pushchina:
1812–1814, Leningrad, 1987, pp. 46–7. Aleksei Nikitin, for instance, notes that most of the Polish Lancer Regiment deserted at Vitebsk: ‘Vospominaniia Nikitina’, in Kharkevich (ed.), 1812
god
, vol. 2, pp. 140–41. This may be an exaggeration.

16 M. M. Petrov, ‘Rasskazy sluzhivshego v 1-m egerskom polku polkovnika Mikhaila Petrova o voennoi sluzhbe i zhizni svoei’, in 1812
god: Vospominaniia voinov russkoi armii
, Moscow, 1991, pp. 112–355, at pp. 176–7.

17 N. E. Mitarevskii,
Rasskazy ob otechestvennoi voine
1812
goda
, Moscow, 1878, pp. 13–23. The story about the priests comes from the reminiscences of Ivan Liprandi, the quartermaster general of Sixth Corps: Kharkevich, 1812
god
, vol. 2, p. 5: ‘ZamechaniiaI. P. Liprandi’. 18
MVUA
1812, 13, no. 203, Uvarov to Alexander, 19 June 1812 (OS), pp. 206–7.

19 Armand de Caulaincourt,
At Napoleon’s Side in Russia
, New York, 2003, p. 43. V.M. Bezotosnyi,
Razvedka i plany storon v
1812
godu
, Moscow, 2005, pp. 58–9, 100–101.

20
Correspondance de Napoléon Ier
, 32 vols., Paris, 1858–70, vol. 24, no. 18925, Napoleon to Clarke, 8 July 1812, pp. 33–4.

21 On Orlov’s mission, see e.g. the diary of Nikolai Durnovo for 21 and 22 June 1812 (OS), in A. G. Tartakovskii (ed.),
Voennye dnevniki
, Moscow, 1990, pp. 79–80.

22 Grabbe,
Iz pamiatnikh
, pp. 22–35.

23
MVUA
1812, 13, no. 296, Barclay to Alexander, 25 June 1812 (OS), pp. 302–3 and no. 323, 27 June 1812 (OS), pp. 331–3.

24 On the engineers, see I. G. Fabritsius,
Glavnoe inzhenernoe upravlenie
, SVM, 7, SPB, 1902, pp. 392–5.

25 See the discussion in Bezotosnyi,
Razvedka
, pp. 112–13, where it is argued that the so-called Pfühl plan was a cunning ploy on Alexander’s part to avoid responsibility for a policy of strategic withdrawal which he considered necessary but did not want to acknowledge.

26 Löwenstern,
Mémoires
, vol. 1, p. 208.
MVUA
1812, 17, Alexander to Bagration, 5 July 1812 (OS), pp. 275–6. Shishkov reproduces the letter to Alexander in his memoirs and discusses the conversations between the three men: N. Kiselev and I. Iu. Samarin (eds.),
Zapiski, mneniia i perepiska Admirala A. S. Shishkova
, 2 vols., Berlin, 1870, vol. 1, pp. 141–8.

27 For Bagration’s ‘system’, see e.g. his order of the day to his troops of 7 July 1812 and his earlier letter to Arakcheev:
General Bagration
, nos. 95, pp. 179–80, and 103, which is simply dated June 1812 and is on pp. 190–91. For his proposed diversion, see
MVUA
1812, 13, no. 120, Bagration to Alexander, 26 June 1812, pp. 131–3.